Many high density printed circuit board assemblies (PCBs) are installed in tight housings, or have bulky components attached to them, such that component height in portions of the PCB must be limited. For example, in the area near a processor of a personal computer motherboard, component height must be limited to avoid mechanical interference with processor heat sinks. Similarly, high profile components on PCMCIA or Cardbus devices are undesirable because they may require the device to occupy two slots in a laptop computer's connector instead of a single slot; occupancy of multiple slots may limit further system expandability and may prevent use with machines having only a single slot available.
Voltage regulated down-converters for providing power to microprocessor integrated circuits of laptop and desktop personal computers are known. Such converters typically include one or more inductors.
Inductors for switching power converters, such as voltage regulators, have been proposed. For example, commonly owned U.S. Pat. No. 7,352,269 to Li et al. (“Li”), which is incorporated herein by reference, discloses, in part, various coupled inductors. FIG. 71 shows one prior art coupled inductor 7100, which is similar to that of Li's FIG. 4, and includes windings 7102, 7104 wound through a passageway 7106 in a magnetic core 7108. Leakage inductance associated with windings 7102, 7104 is roughly proportional to a separation distance 7110 between windings 7102, 7104.